


The Trellis

by wetkitchenpaint



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Destiel Promptober, M/M, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 10:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12529588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wetkitchenpaint/pseuds/wetkitchenpaint
Summary: John used to joke that he’d already done all the work to ensure that Dean’s future wife would be able to sneak into his room undetected.Save one minor detail, John was right.Castiel Novak climbed the trellis for the first time when he was seven years old.





	The Trellis

John Winchester had known Mary Campbell for four days when he got the idea.

Five days, three coats of varnish, two bruised thumbnails, and various cuts and bruises later, it was finished. And it was beautiful.

John had noticed the aging trellis that sat under Mary’s second floor window the first time he’d walked her home. When it became clear that Mary’s father would be an obstacle to their budding relationship, a vision of a new trellis took root in John’s mind. Not only would it serve to bolster his image in the eyes of Mary’s mother, whose vining roses needed a new home, but it would give John direct access to Mary’s bedroom window. 

The usually-observant Mr. Campbell just rolled his eyes. John heaved a sigh of relief.

When Mary’s parents died tragically eight months later, John and Mary wed quickly. They took the trellis with them to their new home, where it would house Mary’s own vining roses under what would soon become their firstborn’s bedroom window. John used to joke that he’d already done all the work to ensure that Dean’s future wife would be able to sneak into his room undetected.

Save one minor detail, John was right. 

Castiel Novak climbed the trellis for the first time when he was seven years old.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

The Novak’s moved in two doors down the summer after Dean turned five. Castiel was nearly a year older, but the two boys took to each other immediately. Their mothers were relieved. It had been hard to pry Dean away from Sammy in the year since the younger Winchester had been born, and Castiel couldn’t be bothered to interact socially at all, preferring to draw or read in his bedroom. When Mary knocked on the Novak’s door, two children and a still-warm apple pie in tow, Naomi was thrilled to see a boy close to her youngest son’s age, and immediately called Castiel down from his room. Neither woman could have predicted the way their sons’ eyes would catch flame at the sight of each other. 

Less than a year after their first meeting, Castiel used the trellis for the first time.

Luke Novak, Cain and Naomi’s oldest son, had been pushing boundaries since he was born, a solid thirteen days past his due date. As he grew older, the relationship between the oldest child and his parents became increasingly strained and occasionally volatile. Two days after Castiel’s seventh birthday, things came to a head. When Luke slipped into the house two hours after curfew, falling down drunk, Cain was waiting for him. A shouting match ensued, and a terrified Castiel slipped out of his first-floor window and crept over to the Winchester residence. He climbed the trellis quietly, snagging his pajamas on a few thorns. He knocked on the window, and Dean opened it and welcomed him inside. Castiel sobbed quietly into Dean’s shoulder until they both fell asleep. Mary found them tangled together the next morning, dried tear tracks streaking Castiel’s face. 

After the initial incident, it began happening four or five times a week. 

Mary didn’t mind, but Naomi was profoundly embarrassed. Despite repeated assurances from both Mary and Dean that Castiel was welcome at any time, and that this new arrangement didn’t pose an issue, Naomi couldn’t help but feel like it was some kind of parental failure on her part that her seven-year-old spent most nights in another home. When she tried to put a stop to it, Castiel declared himself to be on a hunger strike. The precocious, blue-eyed boy won; after 52 hours without a bite to eat, Naomi gave in. She was certain, after all, that the boys would eventually grow out of the habit.

But they didn’t.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Occasionally, when the boys were younger, Mary would take a picture of the way she’d find them in the mornings when she went to wake them up; it wasn’t infrequent that someone was in a headlock, or that one of them would be laying half on the floor. Once, Dean even had his toes placed suspiciously near Cas’ nostrils. (It turned out that wasn’t an accident. Dean had thought it would be funny. Castiel didn’t exactly see the humor, and he spent the next two nights at home in his own bed. Dean had to make a heartfelt apology before Cas would return.)

But one morning, when Dean was fifteen and Cas was sixteen, the picture-taking ritual abruptly came to an end. Mary opened the door quietly, and the scene that met her made her breath catch in her throat. Castiel was curled into Dean’s side, an arm slung across Dean’s waist, and Mary could see the outline of their legs tangled together under the sheet. Cas was still snoring lightly, but Dean was wide awake. He was running the fingers of one hand through Castiel’s hair, and dragging the thumb of the other lightly along Cas’ jaw. Mary watched her son place a lingering kiss on his best friends’ forehead and heard him whisper, “love you so goddamn much, Cas.” Mary felt like she was intruding, witnessing a moment that was too private, too intimate for a mother to have seen. She backed out of the room slowly and came back several minutes later, making enough noise in the hall to alert Dean to her presence.

She went out that afternoon and bought Dean his first alarm clock.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Somehow, Dean and Cas managed to make it through high school without revealing their feelings to each other. (Castiel was just as much in love as Dean was. If Naomi hadn’t brought it up, Mary would have noticed anyways. Castiel had always looked at Dean as though he hung the moon, and the look of adoration only intensified over the years.) They managed to apply and get accepted to different colleges, and the summer flew by much quicker than any of them had anticipated. Castiel left for school a week before Dean, and both Naomi and Mary were surprised that the conversation they’d expected for years didn’t happen on the Novak’s driveway as Dean helped Cas pack his belongings into the car. Minutes after Castiel pulled away, Dean took off in the Impala. He wouldn’t return for hours, but when he did, Mary took note of his red-rimmed eyes.

Dean cried himself to sleep the entire week. He didn’t know it at the time, but Cas did, too.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Dean had been at college for eleven days when Mary got the call she’d been expecting. Of course, she didn’t expect it to come at nearly 3 AM, but she probably should have. After all, when else would Dean feel the absence of his best friend more than at night? It had been 18 days since Dean and Cas had woken up together; they hadn’t spent so many nights apart since their strange arrangement had begun.

Dean was nearly hysterical, a chorus of “I miss him, I love him, Mom, I’m in love with him,” broke out between muffled sobs. Mary talked him down as best she could, and asked him to wait until morning to take off to see Castiel, to try and get some sleep before taking on seven hours of driving. Mary hung up the phone, elated. John rolled over and asked groggily if it had been Dean calling. “Yes,” she said, “he’s finally going to tell Castiel.” 

“Jesus, finally,” John replied, rolling back over and falling asleep instantly.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Dean spent the rest of the night packing his meager belongings back into the Impala, officially unenrolled from school within 15 minutes of the administrative offices opening, and was on the road before 9 AM. He drove through without stopping, unless you count a quick piss break by the side of a rather busy four lane highway, making it to Cas’ dorm in far less time than it should have taken him to safely complete the journey. He parked in a spot near the entrance and called Castiel while sitting on the hood. 

“Cas, I’m having something delivered to your dorm for you, but you gotta sign for it. So put on some pants and go out front.”

“How do you know I’m not wearing pants?” Cas huffed, annoyed.

“Castiel James Novak, I know every goddamn thing about you. Now hurry the fuck up and get down there before the guy gets pissed off and leaves.”

There was some incoherent grumbling while Cas located a pair of mostly-clean pants. Dean’s heart beat wildly in his chest, excitement and fear for what he was about to do coursing through his veins. In less than a minute, Cas emerged through the front doors, and Dean could actually feel himself falling in love with his best friend all over again.

“Where is this fabled delivery man?” Cas grumbled.

“Turn to the right,” Dean directed, unable to keep the smile out of his voice. “See him?”

Dean saw Castiel’s expression change the moment he realized who the delivery man was. Cas gasped and dropped his phone, sprinting to the Impala. He tackled Dean flat onto the hood of the car, squeezing Dean tightly, and Dean giggled, fucking giggled, as he hugged Cas tight to his chest. 

“What’re you doing here?” Cas asked, as he stood back up and his eyes caught the packed interior of the car. “And why did you bring everything you own?” Dean saw hope flicker through the blue eyes he loved so much, and he couldn’t help the almost nervous smile that snuck across his features.

Dean took a deep breath, and reached a hand out toward Cas’ waist. He snagged a belt loop and pulled Cas close to his chest. “See, Cas, I did something really fucking stupid. I fell in love with my best friend years ago, and I let him move seven hours away from me without ever telling him how I felt. I cried to my mom this morning at 3 fucking AM, then spent the rest of my night packing my shit into the car. I dropped out of school this morning, Cas. If you feel for me even half of what I feel for you, then I made the right decision.” Dean closed his eyes, taking a moment to breathe, and pulled Cas another inch closer. “Please, please tell me I didn’t fuck this up.”

Cas brought his hands up to cradle Dean’s face, and tilted their foreheads together. “Dean, I don’t even remember a time before I was in love with you.” Cas brought their lips together slowly, in what was the first of many, many kisses to come. Cas led Dean up to his dorm room and they fell asleep curled around each other. It was the most restful sleep either had gotten in nearly three weeks.

 

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When Dean and Cas married five years later, John and Mary gifted them the trellis. It served as a conversation piece in their apartment until they bought their first home. When they brought home their first child, a girl, two years after moving in, Dean promptly installed the trellis under her window. If it had worked for Lily’s parents and grandparents? Surely it would work for her, too.

**Author's Note:**

> I planned to do ALL of the Promptober prompts, but...wellllllll.....LIFE. Unfortunately, this is the only one I finished. Sometimes I am super lame. 
> 
> Let me know if you see any mistakes. If I have to read this through one more time, well...you know.


End file.
